1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surgical system wherein the surgeon performs surgical treatment in cooperation with multiple surgical staff members such as assistants to the surgeon, nurses, and the like, while observing images of tissue in the body cavity taken by an endoscope.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, surgical treatment is widely performed using an endoscope. In this kind of surgical treatment, the surgeon makes multiple openings in the body wall of the patient, wherein one is used for inserting an endoscope, and the others are used for inserting surgical instruments. Subsequently, the surgeon performs medical treatment of tissue in the body cavity with the surgical instruments while observing images of the tissue in the body cavity taken by the endoscope. In general, such a surgical treatment is performed by the surgeon who operates the surgical instruments and the endoscope, in cooperation with surgical assistants, nurses, and the like, who assist the surgeon around the surgery table. The surgical assistants, nurses, and the like, operate surgical instruments other than the endoscope, or in some case, operate the endoscope, instead of the surgeon. The surgical staff members perform surgery while communicating with each other.
On the other hand, a medical instrument is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-337073, wherein a surgical instrument or a guide tube of the surgical instrument includes guide means for guiding such that the tip of the surgical instrument comes in the field of view of the endoscope. Thus, the surgeon can grasp the direction of the surgical instrument even in the event that the surgical instrument is out of the field of view of the endoscope during surgery.